Kraftwerk

This at the bottom of the BBC page...

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45301000/jpg/_45301645_cones2_126.jpg
Cones hotline
The lasting legacy of John Major's much ridiculed plan

what would Florian do?

Hopefully jam with Michael Rother and Jaki L., but probably not. :(

Every time I play the opening minute or two of "Europe Endless" I'm kinda convinced there's no better start to a song -- an album, ANYTHING -- out there. It's such a perfectly realized and precise arrangement, and *then* the beats arrive.

co-sign!

Europa Endlos should be the anthem of the EU.

Every time I play the opening minute or two of "Europe Endless" I'm kinda convinced there's no better start to a song -- an album, ANYTHING -- out there. It's such a perfectly realized and precise arrangement, and *then* the beats arrive.

For me, that moment is the keyboard interlude the third time or so it's repeated. For one, I just love the sound of the saw wave and the little modulation accents Ralf plays. But on that iteration, Ralf knocks it up a register — and it just takes off. Easily my favorite Kraftwerk moment, period.

Folks have probably already seen this, but just in case:

http://www.factmagazine.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3212&Itemid=26

Remasters of Autobahn, Radio-Activity, Trans Europe Express), The Man Machine, Computer World, Techno Pop, The Mix, and Tour De France. Available individually or as a box set, in which case they come in those horrible little "mini LP sleeve" packages people seem to like for some reason.

On October 5 Kraftwerk will release 12345678: The Catalogue, a CD box set collecting eight of their classic studio albums. Newly remastered versions of the albums will also be available individually on CD, vinyl and download.

- 8 x individual CDs presented in special slipcases featuring newly expanded artwork, including many previously unseen images all of which have been reproduced to the highest technical standards.

- CD Box Set containing 8 x CDs in ‘mini-vinyl’ card wallet packaging, plus individual large format booklets.

- 8 x individual heavyweight vinyl LPs with large format booklets.

- Digital downloads.

Any reason to buy these for those of us who own all the albums on CD already? Sounds like extra packaging but nothing in the way of new/unreleased music... not really into those types of reissues.

Remastered sound?

Oh my god, I'm listening to the original '83 version of "Tour de France" right now and am FLIPPING OUT

for the first time

Remastered sound?

The remastering will be the selling point for me. The CDs that we've been listening to for the last twenty years leave a lot to be desired.

will "Techno Pop" be mythical lost album or just "Electric Cafe" with original title?

wikipedia says it's just electric cafe with the original title

ralf and florian is nice, summery, kind of hawaiian

-- this explains why i like that lp so much!

Techno Pop was basically a failed album that had the best parts remixed into Electric Cafe. I doubt it will ever seen the light of day and I am not too upset about it. It would be neat to hear out of curiosity, but I doubt they have eight Tour de France style joints sitting in the can waiting to be heard.

That being said, I can only imagine what they have in their archives. I would love to hear the demos for songs that didn't make the cut for their studio albums. They will never be heard while Hutter is alive, but it will be interesting to see how his estate handles the music.

It will also be interesting to see who is credited on the box set. I wonder if Schneider will have his name removed like Bartos and Flur.

.. and Conny Plank...

1983 demo version of 'Techno Pop' is utterly different than album version, almost a 70's retrench with the Orchestron vocal choir playing the chord sequence, I like it better than the album version

& there were three new tunes on the 98 tour than remain unreleased, I can see why but I'd still love a studio version of the one that sounds like their take on Basic Channel

word! is that demo vers floating around somewhere reachable?
the live versions I've heard of the "Techno Pop" stuff is pretty great ... hard-hitting, muscular stuff

usual place, + demo version of 'techno pop' widely available on 'ultra rare trax volume 2' comp, most widely available bootleg of 97/98 tour is 'Computer Sinfonien ZKM'

correction, one word "Computersinfonien"

but "Tribal Gathering" and "Live at the Fillmore" boots pretty good too

ace, thanks!

"but "Tribal Gathering" and "Live at the Fillmore" boots pretty good too"

for a second i'm thinking i clicked on the live dead thread by mistake...

yeah I mean "Fillmore" is a better, more lush recording that captures more of the vibe of the night, but at "Tribal" Ralf was just so on

The only Kraftwerk recordings I have are 70's era, including the one with Rother + Dinger, and this one from Leverkusen with a 40 minute Autobahn

you know where leonardo is? I've been looking for Leverkusen forever, I'll put up 1975 Brighton if you post that one

to go back to "Tribal" it was like Ralf had all this energy that you could literally see rising out of his hands, and it wasn't the acid because I asked Mary and she saw the same tendrils

It's in flac or shn; what's the best way to send something of that size?

i quite liked the three late 90s demos esp. the Tribal '97 one. actually 'Tango' was a bit shit but they kept doing that live for a while unlike the other two.

oh jeez, probably zipping the flac files would get them under sendspace-able 300 MB

I know this is bad form trading right out here on the street but seriously if they sold this shit legit we wouldn't be in the sorry state we are right now man

Oh it's fine, I got it all on dime/dc++ anyway. It's not like it's copyrighted or anything.

Relistening to this Autobahn for the first time in like 6 years. Sound quality's kind of shit, but performance is simply transcendent. If this isn't A++++ I don't know what is; the motorik breakdown alone is like 10 minutes. Will post soon.

The whole thing's 980 megs though; I think I'll just V0 this or something.

fine with mp3's

Kraftwerk POX
http://www.sendspace.com/file/jfeegk

the other non-album Kraftwerk single I'm looking for, the pre-Conny Plank 7" version of “Kohoutek – Kometenmelodie” - http://www.headheritage.com/unsung/thebookofseth/1743

have heard side 1, still haven't heard side 2

ha ha until this very second, oh blogspot.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/5rsc6e

Techno Pop version of 'Sex Object'

http://r*pidshare.com/files/266436158/kwtp.zip.html

ha ha until this very second, oh blogspot.

― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 12 August 2009 00:58 (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

where?

If you google kohoutek and kraftwerk it's one of the first results

Yeah, found one. Quite recently, I did that, got nowt...

chemicalbeats.blogspot.com usually has some good stuff.

http://chemicalbeats.blogspot.com/2008/11/kraftwerk-kohoutek-kometenmelodie.html

stuff like that

Leverkusen is hilarious, it's rare to hear that many technical problems / mistakes, it's enjoyable. and that version of Autobahn is hands down beautiful.

for the Brighton show they'd just bought the Orchestron, so it's a fun chance to hear them use those TEE Strings / Radioactivity Choir samples on almost every single song

not a single one of the 70's shows I don't want to hear at least once: http://www.valand.gu.se/dm/students/andreas/kw_skivor/bootlegs.html

They never did perform "Europe Endless"/"Endless Endless"/"Franz Schubert" live did they? I would killlll to hear one...

you should track down the london roundhouse gig from 1976, they do "europe endless" and a version of "trans europe express" that sounds like a work in progress, quite different from the released version

I'd love to hear that

also, above, when saying 'Live at the Fillmore' I in fact meant '19980607 - Live at the Warfield, SF'

I know this is retarded and I love Kraftwerk but seeing them live this year made me sad. Maybe they're too old for this sort of thing now. :(

listening back (cough cough) "europe endless" is not quite there either, the rhythm is different & faster, extra vocal bits etc. its quite odd hearing songs you know inside out at an earlier stage.

seeing them live this year made me sad.

I saw them last year and it was AMAZING (had never seen Florian-including lineup though)

I love Kraftwerk but seeing them live this year made me sad

Yeah, I skipped the early 00s UK dates because I thought I would prefer to imagine how they'd have been at the time of releasing their best music rather than see them now, but inspired by last-tour-ever rumours I was considering seeing them next month in Helsinki...

(Mainly I just noticed I have some leave left and thought that Helsinki would be fun and a music festival in Helsinki would be extra fun and a music festival with Kraftwerk headlining would be, uh, extra extra fun.)

No wait the Schoenberg’s in “Trans Europe Express”

Anyway you can tell how they both went to conservatory.

... as did Karl Bartos!

https://www.juliensauctions.com/en/auctions/the-florian-schneider-collection

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxYGxpXBEos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0iWzbFavBI

Worth checking out for the version of Airwaves alone!

does anyone know anything about the Endless Happiness label? seems to be a Russian bootleg operation that has recently "released" the first 3 KW albums & Tone Float, but somehow they are getting their stuff quite widely listed including Discogs, which is usually very anti bootleg.

my local shop has gotten KW 1 & 2 in, he says they seemed like legit reissues to him but he doesn't know KW's history with those albums. I'm guessing he just saw them on Discogs too and assumed.

fwiw they're genuinely pretty good for boots, highly doubt I'd find an original that sounded as good as these. maybe the era of all these hard-to-find German records falling to 4 Men With Beards is finally over

listed as "unofficial" by Discogs but still for sale, and yeah the reviews seem uniformly positive

I wouldn’t trust releases from Russia as being authorized

update: I checked that Endless Happiness label out and sprung for a copy of Clube Da Esquina, it sounds absolutely fantastic

I always had this memory of seeing Kraftwerk on television when I was nine or ten years old but I could never exactly place it. Like having a memory of seeing a UFO - totally amazing but you're never going to see it again.

Only now it's on YouTube and there's a date: it's the July 25, 1975 episode of The Midnight Special
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ncfRpukY60

It's amusing watching the whole episode, the rest of it is all Helen Reddy and Neil Sedaka and the like, when Kraftwerk appear they look like aliens who've beamed in from the future.

the zoom ins on the knobs are so cool. so many machines you'll never see again

I love how it gets all wobbly as Florian's ARP Odyssey slowly detunes

Anyone catching their current tour?

Note they're covering 'Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence' as a tribute to Ryuichi, and also playing the never released 'Tango' again for the first time since before the TDF album came out.

ah fudge Elvis’ video is now set to private

Never fear, it's been reposted by others. Actually I'm not sure why it was that big of a deal when it was posted last month, since the footage has circulated for many years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ8BPCWX-dw

Going to see them Thursday in Wolverhampton. No idea what to expect but looking forward to it